


The Party and the Princess

by Slightlydisheveled



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: El is a BAMF, Everyone wants to prove their worth, F/M, Mileven is sweet, Sorry but i'm not sorry at all actually, The medieval AU no one asked for, will byers does NOT get a break
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-14
Updated: 2018-06-14
Packaged: 2019-05-23 11:24:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14933315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Slightlydisheveled/pseuds/Slightlydisheveled
Summary: A runaway princess just wants a chance to live a better life without an arranged marriage in the courts of Aberron.Three young knights are on a quest to find and rescue their friend who has been kidnapped.Add in a girl with a fiery personality and hair to match looking to prove herself and become a knight.Throw all these people together abruptly; what could possibly go wrong?





	The Party and the Princess

**Author's Note:**

> Hello friends! 
> 
> So I got this idea because in so many Mileven stories people always have Mike telling a bedtime story to Holly with knights and a princess reflecting what actually happened to Mike and El.
> 
> So I thought, huh.
> 
> That would be cool to actually write the bedtime story as an AU.
> 
> And here we are.
> 
> So anyways, I hope you like this!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> El meets some knights that are also idiots.

Princess Eleanor almost groaned in relief as she slid off her horse to the ground that she had chosen to be her campsite for the night. The dim light of dusk in the mountains illuminated the small clearing in an orange and golden kind of light, but daylight was fading quickly.

Although she had plenty of experience riding on a horse, she was still unaccustomed to days upon days in the saddle, especially in climbing a mountain. Her backside ached abominably, and she rubbed it ruefully through her tunic and leggings as she all but collapsed on the hard dirt ground.

After the past few years, Eleanor had definitely forgotten exactly what life on the road felt like, and she wasn’t exactly happy to be reminded of the feeling quite so harshly.

El, you did this to yourself. Suck it up and deal with it. She told herself. 

It had all started when she turned sixteen. Her father, King Martin of Fairmont, had decided that it was high past time she was used to further the kingdom’s alliances with other neighboring kingdoms, and had arranged a marriage for her to Prince Troy of Camerat. Her father had never put much stock in her, wanting to marry her off as soon as she was old enough so he could have a male ruler of the kingdom. Eleanor had met Prince Troy on a few occasions, and knew as soon as her father announced her engagement that she absolutely would not go through with it. 

Prince Troy was a pig. He was cruel and took joy in making those lower than him miserable. He punished unjustly and was greedy. Eleanor wanted nothing to do with him. Any marriage she had with him would undoubtedly be an abusive and unhappy one.

So, the night after the announcement, Eleanor had gathered a few of her more valuable possessions. Her sword, which she had been training with since she was five. Eleanor loved swordplay. When her dad forbade her from learning after age ten so she could be more focused on learning ‘ladylike’ activities, she and the sword master of the castle, Sir James, had continued her training in secret. She packed some sturdy clothing that would hold up under travel. A cloak to hide her face. Camping supplies. Some money to barter for necessary goods with at local markets she passed through. And of course, her hunting bow and knife.

However, before she could leave, she knew she had to say goodbye to the one person who made her life pleasant in the court at Fairmont.

Sir James, the sword master, was more of a father to Eleanor than King Martin had ever been. So when Eleanor had knocked on the door to his private quarters of Castle Fairmont in the middle of the night with a bundle of her possessions, he pulled her inside with a solemn look on his face.

“You’re leaving.” It was a statement, not a question.

“I can’t do it. I can’t marry him.” Eleanor told him. Sir James nodded slowly, a contemplative look on his face. He was large man, well past six feet in height and was rather built like a bear. But Eleanor knew him to be kindhearted and soft when he so chose. He was this way with her now.

“Come here, kid.” She tumbled into his arms with no hesitation, hugging him close and breathing in his familiar scent. She tried to convey just how much her heart was already hurting through the embrace. Wetness clung to her cheeks as she pulled away and looked up at him.

“I’ll miss you so much.” She had breathed. His eyes were wet as well.

“I’ll miss you, too. You were always the daughter I never had, Eleanor.” She smiled and choked out a laugh through her tears. 

“You were always the father I never had.” 

He pulled her close again, and they stood there for a minute, neither wanting to let go. Eventually though, Eleanor knew she had to go, before a servant discovered she was no longer in her rooms. 

“I have to go.” She sighed reluctantly. “Before anyone realizes I’m not in my rooms.”

Sir James nodded. “I know, kid.” He had turned and walked over to the simple wooden desk in his office chamber. Opening a drawer, he pulled out a medium sized scroll. Handling it with utmost care, like it was a child, he handed it to Eleanor. 

“This is a map of the entire continent; the most detailed one I have. Take it, and use it to make it to the court of Aberron. You’re skillful enough to make it as a courier or artisan there. There is your best chance to live a life of happiness.” Eleanor nodded; his advice was sound. She sniffed and dashed a hand across her cheeks to remove the evidence of her tears, and took the map to stuff in her pack.

“Okay, Sir James. I’ll make it to Aberron and send word to you, I promise.” In response, he simply wrapped her in his arms one last time, as if he wanted to commit her to memory.

“Stay safe, kid.” Were the last words she heard from him as she ghosted down the hallways towards the stables. She had collected her horse and quietly led it outside a side entrance to the castle grounds where she knew the guards would miss her slipping out. Thankfully, she had no issues making it out of range of the castle and rode hard the first night, wanting to put as many miles of silent forest between her and Castle Fairmont before morning. 

That first morning, as the sky had begun to lighten to gray, she had led her horse well off the road and made camp in the forest. Before she fell asleep, however, she used her hunting knife to cut her hair short, like a man’s. She wanted other travelers to mistake her for a man as often as possible. It would be quite easy for them to do so with her hair cut short and her cloak’s hood pulled up over her face.

From the forest, over the next few weeks Eleanor had slowly made her way through the kingdom towards the Great Mountains in the north, consulting the map from Sir James often. 

Travelling through the leagues and leagues of mountainous terrain was dangerous, even for a woman as skillful and intelligent as Eleanor. For one thing, there often were bandits hiding along the path, ready to prey on innocent travellers. Eleanor had been lucky enough to avoid them so far, usually catching wind of them before they were able to surround her. For another, there were rumors of dragons and monsters that dwelled in unexpected places, guarding treasures and generally causing havoc on whoever was unlucky enough to happen upon one. 

Eleanor wasn’t convinced that the rumors of dragons were true. Nevertheless, she made sure to be extra observant of her surroundings as she travelled deeper and deeper into the mountains.

She also had taken other precautions; in order to lessen her resemblance to Eleanor, the Princess of Fairmont, she had obviously cut her hair short. But she also had decided to go by El, especially in interaction with townspeople as she passed through various towns and villages. There was less of a chance they would put two and two together that way.

Although she was a runaway from the only life she had ever known, El had never felt freer in her life. She loved the independence of a life outdoors, living off her own wits and seeing the world. The only part she regretted was not having a friend to share her time with. She ended up talking to her horse a lot of the time.

And that’s exactly what El was doing as she finally began to unpack her possessions to camp for the night. 

“So what do you think, Blaze? Hmmm? Fire or no fire tonight?” Blaze, her shaggy brown horse, rolled her eye to give El a pointed look. No matter what the El said to her, the sturdy little horse had an attitude in her response.

“You’re right, we don’t need to attract attention to ourselves here.” El sighed. They needed to get out of the mountains before she could think about a campfire. It was too dangerous to do it here. Unfortunately, that meant cold rations for the night. 

Well, better get on with it. She thought to herself. She grabbed her water skin and moved towards the nearby mountain stream to refill it. As she refilled the skin, her thoughts turned towards home. She wondered what the reaction had been to her running off. Her father was probably furious. He had probably sent troops out to look for her, but she had yet to encounter any. Then again, her route was probably the most unexpected one for any woman, especially a princess. El scoffed slightly to herself. King Martin had always underestimated her.

El smiled a bit as her thoughts turned towards Sir James. She hoped he was happy, and doing well as he trained new knights at Castle Fairmont’s knightschool. Ruefully, she wished his sense of duty hadn’t kept him at the castle. She quite wished for a friendly face now.

El’s thoughts had distracted her so much that she almost didn’t hear the yelling coming from off in the distance. She stood up quickly, her ears straining to make out more of the sound over the noise of the stream. Suddenly, a monstrous roaring ripped through the air of the mountainside. It seemed to be coming from down the path she had just travelled by. Running to where Blaze stood patiently, she pulled her sword from its scabbard and all but flew back the way she came down the mountain path.

As she ran, the commotion began to get louder and louder, until finally she happened upon the source of the boisterous noise.

At first, she had to blink and do another take, unconvinced of what her eyes were showing her.

A massive dragon was at the far end of a clearing between trees, fighting three (admittedly kind of small) men she recognized as knights by their clothing. The knights were all dodging and jumping as the dragon blew flames, desperately trying to avoid being burned alive. And yet, to El’s astonishment, she could hear them all very loudly arguing one another as they dodged and barely escaped death. 

“When we get out of this, I’m going to kill you, Dustin!”

“You just had to make it mad, didn’t you?”

“How was I supposed to know it would get mad if I purred at it?!?”

Shaking herself out of her astonishment, El surveyed the situation. 

The beast was huge, at least the size of a hill. It was covered in rock hard scales, mottled green in color and like a suit of armor. Jagged teeth protruded from the mouth, and serrated claws scraped across the ground as it moved. Smoke billowed from its nostrils as it bathed everything in flames. The thing seemed to have no limit of fire. Its eyes alone were the size of the windows in her room of Castle Fairmont. She gulped a bit as she saw a smoldering anger and cunning there in its endless depths. 

But those knights couldn’t dodge forever. She had to help them. And that meant she had to get the dragon’s attention somehow.

One idea presented itself to her. It was dumb. But it was the only thing she could think of.

El stepped out of the tree line, into the clearing. No one noticed her at first, but that was understandable because the knights all had their backs to her and the dragon was a little preoccupied with trying to cook the knights alive. 

She opened her mouth and screamed at the top of her lungs, which was admittedly at a high and loud volume. 

Immediately, every one, including the dragon, immediately spun around in shock. Gritting her teeth, El ran forward, sword raised high.

She yelled again, this time taunting the beast. “Hey, muttonhead! It’s me you want!”

The dragon obviously did not like her tone of voice, because it rose to its feet, like it wanted to charge her. 

“Uh ma’am-”

“Wait, miss-”

“Let us handle this ma’am! We’re highly trained for this!”

The knights tried to protest as she ran towards them determinedly. She ignored them as she closed the distance, but then-

“Look out!” She yelled as the dragon attempted to cook them alive yet again.

El huffed to herself as the group of knights scattered from the dragon’s blast. Handle this? They’d be lucky to keep themselves alive at this rate! They hadn’t even tried to attack it!

Idiots. Sweet, but idiots.

It was a good thing she had donned leggings and tunics for the entirety of her journey, because things were about to get messy. She was glad for clothing that would help her move easily and freely.

El easily passed the circle the knights, despite their protests, and was upon the dragon.

In a blink, El was inside the range of the dragon’s fire and she had to dodge its next blast, which she did effortlessly. Next, she dodged a jagged claw as it swiped at her. El thanked her lucky stars that she was light on her feet. Sheathing her sword in the back of her tunic, she darted to the back leg before the dragon could react, and climbed up the leg as easily as she would climb a tree. El made it onto the back of the dragon and smoothly jammed her sword into the vulnerable area behind the skull before the dragon could even think to turn its head around.

With a choked gurgle, the dragon’s fire cut off as El pushed on her sword with all of her strength. Its great green body bucked futilely as it tried unsuccessfully to rip itself out of her grasp, and then falling flat on the ground as its legs lost the strength to hold its body up. El held firm, not even giving an inch. She could hear the knights yelling in shock and rolled her eyes internally.

Idiots.

Slowly, the fight left the body and the dragon’s thrashing calmed. It became still, and after a minute El relaxed her grip. Surely it had to be dead.

Thankfully, the dragon lay still, and gave no sign of life. 

She heard a strangled squeak behind her.

Once she was sure that it was dead, El hopped off the massive head and turned to look at the all of the ‘highly trained’ knights behind her, each with his mouth open giving her an identical look of stupefied shock.

She decided right then and there that she liked these knights. One was taller than the other two, with dark hair and eyes, and a spattering of freckles across his cheeks. Another had dark skin, like cocoa. And the last had a mop of curly hair that fell in ringlets even curlier than hers.

They would be good company, she mused as she studied each of them. In a split second, she had made her decision.

She allowed a smirk to cross her countenance. “All right, you ‘highly trained knights’, let’s get a move on to a safer area, hmmm? You can use my campsite tonight. Let’s go, we’re wasting daylight here.” Their expressions didn’t change, and she sighed in exasperation as she moved past them to begin leading them to her campsite.

“And guys? Shut your mouths, you’re going to catch flies.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, should I continue this? Please leave a comment and let me know! Constructive criticism is welcome as well!
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks guys!
> 
> -S


End file.
